Back in 1972 I obtained a U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,072 on a pickup bed cover comprised of a plurality of individual interlocking slat-forming panels that extended transversely between the upstanding sidewalls of the bed and slid fore and aft within channel-shaped siderails from an extended position covering the bed into a retracted one in which the interlocked slats left the channels, became disconnected from one another and assumed a stacked relation at one end underneath a roofed housing therefor. There were, however, certain shortcomings inherent in the aforementioned construction that I have now been able to either eliminate altogether or at least improve upon significantly.
The first of these was the annoying fact that the cover leaked. While under ordinary circumstances, the joints between the slats were effective to keep water from leaking through onto the load underneath, unfortunately, under heavy weather conditions, even these joints were apt to let some water in. The major problem, however, was the fact the water that shed off to the sides of the cover entered the tracks and from there went on down into the bed since no drainage system was available to get rid of it. Thus, while the cover provided good protection against theft, it was less than effective in terms of keeping the load dry.
An even greater problem surfaced in connection with operation of the cover since the particular way in which the slats stacked one-at-a-time underneath one another caused it to be very difficult to open. More specifically, since each successive panel had to push its way underneath the stack made up of those preceding it, a substantial force had to be applied to the rearmost of the panels at all times and such force as was required became progressively greater as the stack it had to lift became higher.
Finally, as the stack built up, it together with the roofed housing therefor, tended to obscure the vision through the rear window and the occupant's view of the load. While this is by no means a serious drawback, nevertheless, there are occasions where a clear view of the load becomes desirable.